Way Down We Go
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: The paranormal isn't always easy to understand... when Jodie decides to try to be normal, what'll happen?
1. Howling Eerie Night

_**9/23/15, NXT Taping…**_

"Handspring backflip, shades of RVD!" Tom Phillips exclaimed after Amanda landed on her feet after a backflip… but she felt it, that tug in her left wrist.

"Aw, fuck!" Amanda muttered as Alexa stood up and received a kick under her jaw.

With Alexa down, Amanda climbed the top rope and hit the Coup De Grace before pinning Alexa.

The bell rang, Amanda stood up and Finn raised her right hand in victory… despite her trying to hide it, he knew.

"I've lost count of how many times I've fucked my wrists up. And I've been using that move for years." Amanda said after Finn had put a gel pack on her swollen and bruised wrist… it had Finn worried because of how quick Amanda's tiny wrist had started swelling and bruising and Amanda couldn't move her fingers too much. "Let's just head on home." She said… but Finn wouldn't let her get away with that.

"That wrist went up and looks evil, Mandy… I like them no more than you, but it's probably best that a doctor looks at it." Finn said.

"Yeah." Amanda responded as they headed to their locker room and he grabbed their things before they headed towards the garage.

The frantic footsteps were heard within seconds and immediately, Bayley went and pulled Amanda into a hug.

"Bayley… it's alright." Amanda said, trying to reassure her friend.

"Just be careful! Okay?" Bayley said before they let go and she turned to Finn. "Don't let her out of your sight and I'll tell the group that you can't head out with us tonight… besides, there was a bus accident about ten minutes ago." She said.

"What happened, did they say how bad?!" Finn asked.

"Most involved are headed to the hospital...there's not much other than that yet." Bayley answered before she and Finn hugged.

At the ER, Jodie was surveying everything… she was lucky to escape with only cuts and bruises but that wasn't the case for the passengers closer to the driver's seat.

' _Aiden, this fucking sucks! 5 people are gone so far!'_ Jodie thought. Normally Aiden would've replied in some way… but instead, he made a knock on the door to the room.

Jodie stood up and looked in through the glass, seeing Amanda and Finn.

"I don't remember seeing them on the bus… what are you trying to tell me Aiden?" Jodie said quietly before seeing a message on the glass.

' _She wasn't but she's hurt too, look at the way she's pretending it doesn't piss her off that she hurt her arm.'_

Jodie looked closer, seeing the Balor Club armband on Amanda's upper right arm… glancing at the Tv at the nurses station, Jodie saw the repeat of tonight's NXT Taping and hissed sympathetically when she saw how Amanda landed on her wrist… it reminded her of an incident in the DPA lab.

 _ **DPA Facility, 2001…**_

" _Ah… goddamn!"_

 _Jodie shot up to a seated position on the bed in her room when she heard Cole yelling in the observation room, along with his chair hitting the ground._

" _Cole?! Are you okay?!" The 11 year old called out._

" _Yeah… yeah I'm fine, just… flipped off my chair…" Cole replied through the speakers, pain infused in his voice and Jodie getting up from the bed, stepping onto the floor and into her fluffy blue slippers._

" _Let me in there." Jodie requested, walking into her living room area._

' _What… okay…" Cole replied before slowly stepping across the observation room and pressing the unlock button for the door._

" _You are hurt, I knew it!" Jodie said, seeing Cole holding his left hand over his right wrist._

" _Yeah, I… landed badly…" Cole hissed, looking down in confusion when Jodie placed her tiny hands around his wrist, prying his other hand away from it._

' _Like you did to that nasty bruise when I fell in the shower, Aiden… can you do it here?' Jodie thought out towards Aiden, who replied with his normal low noises which Jodie had lately been beginning to understand._

 _Cole lowered his eyebrows in confusion as he felt like pins and needles hit his arm, and Jodie's hands suddenly became very cold… but then when she removed them after a minute, he examined the wrist and found that he could move it again with no difficulty or pain._

" _How did you…" Cole started to question… but Jodie only looked at him before rubbing her eyes, the young one now having lost her energy and slowly returned towards the bed. "Well… thanks, princess…" He said quietly, before closing the door again and returning to his desk, rolling his eyes when he saw that one of the chair's wheels had broken off and that had caused it to collapse…_

 **Present time…**

Jodie carefully walked into the room, Finn looking up as Amanda had fallen asleep from the pain medicine and her right wrist and thumb were in a splint.

"It's a madhouse out there…" Finn said quietly.

"It is… she looks like she doesn't get enough sleep." Jodie responded.

"We're on the road most of the year, have to be up early most days… sleep can be fleeting." Finn said, his fingers on his right hand absentmindedly running through Amanda's hair.

Amanda stirred around for a few seconds but fell back into sleep, Jodie seeing a small scar on the back of Amanda's neck and head.

Jodie's eyes drifted to the scar on Amanda's upper back… but right away, she could tell it wasn't the result of a ring related injury.

"She doesn't still keep in touch with him, does she?" Jodie asked, Finn a bit startled but then he realised that Jodie had figured it out.

"He's… calmed down these days…" Finn answered.

"Fuck him… I met someone abused once, she was heavily pregnant and living on an ice frozen street." Jodie said.

"The son of a bitch kicked her out?!" Finn asked.

"He made her run… he didn't want their baby, he would've killed little Zoey… Tuesday had to choose between her boyfriend and her baby, and I'd say she chose right." Jodie answered.

"She did." Finn said.

The commotion in the hallway made Amanda open her eyes, Finn helping her sit up and Jodie seeing Alexa.

"Bit of advice, avoid that pint sized terror." Amanda said once she saw Jodie.

"I'd be happy to oblige." Jodie replied, Aiden having shown her the darker blue energy surrounding Alexa, indicating her darkened, aggressive manner.

Amanda tried to get up to shake off the grogginess, Finn stopping her.

"Those meds will go straight to your brain if you let them…" Amanda muttered, Jodie and Finn knowing that she wanted to go home.

She pulled the blanket closer to her, trying to stay warm and Jodie seeing a message on the mirror.

' _It's too cold in here, she's losing body heat too fast.'_

It wasn't much longer when they left, Amanda taking a shower and changing into pajamas after drying off before letting Finn put the splint on her wrist.

"That girl… Jodie… you think she'll be alright? She was staring at the glass for a few seconds earlier like she was in a trance." Amanda said as Finn helped her lie down and pulled the covers over her before climbing into the bed himself.

"She did something strange earlier… she saw your back and instantly knew about it. She didn't even ask… well, she asked if you still spoke to him." Finn said, settling the covers over himself and Amanda.

"It's hard not to… it's not the case with all abusers but Randy did change. He's not who he was back then…" Amanda responded as she tried to keep her eyes open.

"I told her that too… didn't seem to change her mind. She said she knew someone who got out of one in way worse ways… pregnant and living homeless through a blasting winter." Finn said.

"A mother's instinct is to protect her child… that kid takes priority over everything…" Amanda replied, rubbing her sleepy eyes and giving into her exhaustion.

It wasn't long before Finn fell asleep too…


	2. Things Happen For A Reason

It was just a little after 10 in the morning when Jodie woke up and wandered downstairs, seeing Sami.

"Oh… hello." Sami said.

"Hi… I was just looking around. Morning stuff, breakfast, all that." Jodie responded.

"Second cabinet in the kitchen… they still asleep?" Sami replied.

"Yeah. I'm Jodie." Jodie said, her and Sami shaking hands.

"Sami. Wait, were you in that bus accident?" Sami responded, asking the last part.

"Yeah… yeah, I was lucky to be halfway along the seats… at the level where the water just reached." Jodie answered.

"Very lucky, five people were killed on impact and others died at the hospital." Sami said before they headed into the kitchen.

Upstairs, Amanda was still asleep when Finn opened his eyes and ran his hand along her back. Deciding to let her sleep a bit longer, he kissed her on her forehead and headed downstairs after getting out of the bed.

"She still asleep?" Sami asked.

"Sound out." Finn answered.

"She needs it." Jodie said quietly.

"Being on both the main roster and NXT, it takes a toll out of someone." Sami said before looking at his phone and seeing a text from Bayley.

' _Any more news on the bus accident?'_

' _That part of I-4 is blocked off… I don't know why but I'm starting to think it wasn't an accident.'_ Sami replied.

"What makes you think that?" Jodie asked.

"I-4 is normally crowded that time of night but last night, it wasn't… do you remember if the driver tried to use the brakes?" Sami answered.

"Not exactly… as soon as the thing started going out of control, I was more focused on the kids at the back… I hope they got out okay, one of them didn't look very well." Jodie replied.

Accessing the internet through his phone, Finn looked up the news section of FOX 35 and found several reports of the accident.

Clicking on the first link, he found that the police report about the bus itself had gotten out.

"Even if he tried, it wouldn't have made much difference." Finn said, Jodie and Sami walking over and seeing from the report that the brake lines were slashed.

Upstairs, Amanda was still sleeping when she felt a cold wind blow past her face and heard a low howling noise. Still out of it, Amanda pulled the covers closer to her.

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" Amanda heard, opening her eyes and seeing the faint outline become clearer to reveal Rowdy Roddy Piper.

"Ghosts never sleep." Amanda muttered but the weird part was that Roddy was talking to someone she couldn't see.

"Aiden, let her sleep!" Roddy whispered.

"Roddy, who's Aiden?" Amanda asked, Roddy seeing that she was awake.

"Your friend, Jodie… she didn't tell you, did she?" Roddy asked.

"Tell me what?" Amanda answered.

"That for as long as she's been alive, she's had this entity tethered to her." Roddy explained.

"The dark blue aggressive energy that appeared over Alexa… Aiden sensed it." Amanda said, Roddy seeing the splint clearly.

"Yeah… and what have I told you about backflips?" Roddy asked jokingly.

"Hey, I had it handled… just landed wrong…" Amanda answered, trailing off… it was starting to upset her again, the familiarity made her wish that Roddy was still alive. "I want to reach out and hug you… I miss you." She whispered as she blinked her tears away, Roddy knowing that for as long as Amanda could remember, he had always been there whether it was as her childhood idol or as a friend who was more like family.

Nearby, Aiden lightly moved the picture of Amanda and Roddy from Amanda's 19th birthday.

"I miss you too, kiddo… and uh, I wouldn't answer those calls right away." Roddy said.

"Seth never used to be like this…" Amanda said quietly as she stood up.

"I know, kiddo." Roddy said before disappearing… Aiden went quiet and Amanda slipped her feet into her fuzzy grey slippers and headed downstairs, her and Finn hugging.

But he could feel her body trembling in his arms.

" _She knows, Jodie."_ Jodie heard Aiden say.

' _How?'_ Jodie thought.

" _One of her long lost friends saw me…"_

It was when they were all ready for the day that they headed out.

 _ **Full Sail University…**_

"If something occurs at one taping, we usually hold the next one the next night…" Amanda explained after setting her things down, Jodie looking around the locker room. "Sorry that I was… scared at first of Aiden." She said.

"A lot of people usually are… I've had good and bad things out of it." Jodie replied, running her hand over the locker units as Aiden poured their past through her head.

Deciding to distract herself, Amanda went for a walk… and within seconds, found her injured wrist gripped tightly.

Amanda acted quicker and pinned the person against the wall, evoking a scream… only to see it was a shaken Enzo.

"You butthead. Why do you look so spooked?" Amanda said after backing away.

"There's a ghost here!" Enzo said frantically.

"Aiden, Enzo's harmless! Leave him alone." Amanda said, Enzo turning confused. The two then heard a loud impact and saw a chunk fly out of the wall a few feet away, followed by a rush of cold air.

"The fuck is going on-" Enzo started to ask, both seeing another chunk fly and hearing Alexa scream after it hit her.

Alexa rubbed her still sore jaw and narrowed her eyes at Amanda before storming over to her.

"What the fuck was that?!" Alexa screeched.

"Don't look at me, I don't know why the wall's falling apart." Amanda said, unfazed… but it made Alexa angrier.

"Some kind of problem here?" Finn asked as he and Jodie walked over.

"Yeah, there's chunks coming out of the wall from right where she's stood, hitting me in the head!" Alexa said angrily.

"I didn't do anything, alright? I've been here, talking to Enzo." Amanda responded.

"There's a ghost here!" Enzo said, Alexa laughing humorlessly for a few seconds.

' _Aiden?'_ Jodie thought… seconds later, Alexa let out a shrill scream as she was lifted up about five feet in the air. "Try me… there's a ghost here but he's not attached to this place, he's attached to _me._ And I think he has a very uncompleted definition of mercy in his dictionary!"

"Let me go!" Alexa yelled, Aiden letting her fall to the floor and Alexa pulling herself up, Jodie a bit startled to see bleeding claw marks up her arms.

' _That's a new one, Aiden… you don't normally scratch people.'_ Jodie thought.

Alexa limped off and Finn rested his hand on Amanda's back and got her to sit down to blink off the shock.

"Scratching people? He really doesn't like her." Amanda said quietly.

"No… even the backstabber who said he loved me, then betrayed me and tricked me into assassinating a peacefully working president didn't get scratched. Though saying that, his helicopter did get nearly yanked out of the sky." Jodie said.

Instinctively, Amanda's right hand wrapped around Finn's left one and he held it in both his hands and lightly kissed it.

They knew things had gotten more chaotic.


End file.
